The future of the Women's Library

Friday 14 March 2014 17.00 EDT
First published on Friday 14 March 2014 17.00 EDT

Maev Kennedy (Report, 10 March) talks about the Women's Library having lost its building as if it were a hankie it absentmindedly dropped in the street. In reality, it was forcibly ejected by LSE holding a gun to its head. LSE's message was: "Move into our library in Aldwych or we will withdraw our offer to run you." While campaigners obviously hope that it will not have to move again, we campaigned vigorously for LSE to continue running the Women's Library in its existing building.

Our fears about cost effectiveness, loss of expertise and openness if it were forced to move are already coming true. LSE has had to spend much more on building works than anticipated and, once finished, they will in no way match the previous purpose-built, prize-winning facilities.

As for LSE celebrating the Women's Library's "opening" by acknowledging its history and connection to the feminist movement, among those not invited to celebrate are nine out of 10 members of the recently formed Feminist and Women's Libraries and Archives Network, staff who worked at the library for more than 10 years, former academics from London Met who dedicated many hours to support the library, donors of substantial collection materials and other feminist scholars and activists who have supported it in many ways over the years.Gail ChesterKathy ParkerMiriam DavidMalise RosbechJacky GruhnAnna PigottJill NichollsAnny BrackxUna ByrneWendy DavisAnnie FatetGemma AstonLynda BennettCatherine LockhartDorothy DunnIrena FickCarol AckroydKate Elander Helen BishopMelissa FriedbergKatie HancockCloud TaylorMarion PrinceDagmar KattlerGill SampsonAmanda SebestyenAnne-Marie BrenckleMo HildenbrandEve RubinRoberta Hunter-HendersonLee ComerGill Jackson

• When London Metropolitan University announced it could no longer sustain the Women's Library collection, LSE was not "the sole bidder" to house the collection; it was one of a number of organisations that expressed an interest, and was delighted to have been picked as the new home.

The proposition that maintaining the previous premises would have cost "a relatively small sum" is also false – the previous site would have required at least £500,000 per annum to maintain. One of LSE's greatest assets is that we are a campus university, located in the centre of London, and throughout the transfer we have been open about keeping all of the library's collections together in a single location.

I would also challenge the view that the collection has been removed from its "working-class base". LSE Library has longer opening hours than the Women's Library at Aldgate, and the Women's Library reading room will be accessible to the public throughout the year.

LSE is undoubtedly different to previous locations for this collection – we host a vibrant and immensely popular public lecture series alongside our world-renowned taught courses. These differences will be explored to their fullest potential as we bring out the best in this unique collection for a wider audience than ever before. Elizabeth ChapmanDirector, LSE Library

• Paul Whitehouse's letter (12 March) on The Women's Library contains many inaccuracies. LSE was not "the sole bidder"; others included the Bodleian Library and Manchester city council, the latter being a frontrunner until government cuts to local authority funding compelled a withdrawal. "A relatively small sum" to maintain the library at its Aldgate site would have been in the region of £500,000 a year; it makes operational sense for libraries to keep all their staff and collections under one roof – as the British Library, which now houses collections as disparate as the Sound Archive and the India Office Library, has demonstrated.

It is absolutely correct to stress that TWL arises out of the political movement for women's rights; it is also true that LSE was founded by feminists such as Charlotte and Bernard Shaw. Feminists – suffragist and suffragette – were as active in London's Holborn as they were in the East End and, indeed, all over Britain. And given that LSE has invested large sums in creating a dedicated reading room for TWL and will be opening an exhibition space for its museum artefacts, it is a little premature to state that it will be left "with fewer independent objective characteristics".

The facilities at Aldgate were not much of a resource for local people; a comparison of the opening hours reveals it is absurd to suggest that TWL will be "imprisoned" in its new home.

Of course all of us who have championed TWL are disappointed to have lost the purpose-built premises which made so many initiatives and conversations possible; but the women's movement is in rude health and exists independently of bricks and mortar, and presents us with more important things to fight for than Paul Whitehouse offers us.Dr Anne SummersChair, Friends of the Women's Library,Research fellow, history, Birkbeck College